Excessive Expression: Wang Ziheng Introduces Ice Seller

Last December at one of D-22's "Zooming Night" series, I came across this alternative rock band from Tianjin called Ice Seller (昼夜售冰). It was this combination of spastic singing filled with half notes, garage rock bass lines that always remain steady, drum beats and post-punk-esque guitar strum in spontaneous manners, and saxphone developed into high pitch glides and improvised melodies. It sounded a bit loose in the beginning, but the compositions were actually quite solid and most importantly, they had a great energy on stage. We had a quick chat with lead vocalist, guitarist and sax Wang Ziheng before their another Zooming Night performance on April 23 at D-22.

Ice Seller are…
Wang Ziheng (vocal/saxophone/guitar),
Hou Jingrong (guitar),
Nie Long (bass),
Mao Shizhou (drum)

How you started…
About half a year ago, our bassist Nie Long and I were thinking of starting a band, and we found Mao Shidan for the drummer position, then we just came up with some demo tracks.

Influenced by…
Mostly post punk, world music, psychedelic and noise rock. The Birthday Party, Keiji Haino, The Residents, Captain Beefheart, Virgin Prunes, DNA, The Doors and Kaoru Abe.

Tom Waits?
I like Tom Waits, but he’s hardly an influence to Ice Seller. There is this other band from Tianjin called Wanderlust, they seem to love him a lot.

Day jobs being…
We are all students.

Tianjin music scene in contrast to Beijing…
Tianjin has quite a long way to go. The audience here in Beijing shows greater tolerance to different kinds of music, and musicians here in general are definitely in higher standards.

On “Zooming Night”…
We were introduced to “Zooming Night” through a friend. It provides opportunities for young musicians, and bands of different genres can always share the same stage, that’s pretty exciting.

What's next…
Ice Seller are looking forward to exploring more genres, in that way we can establish our own sound.

Listen to Ice Seller at www.douban.com/artist/iceseller

Ice Seller perform at D-22 on April 23 (Friday) with Ourself Beside Me, The Offset: Spectacles and Wanderlust. RMB 40, RMB 30 (students). 9pm. 242 Chengfu Lu (two doors west of 13 Club), Haidian District (6265 3177) 海淀区成府路242号